1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to categorizing search results, and more specifically relates to a system and method for generating refinement categories for a set of search results.
2. Related Art
With the explosive growth of distributed networks, such the Internet and World Wide Web, the ability to effectively search for electronic information has become more and more important. Most web-based search engines, such as GOOGLE®, allow a user to enter a query comprised of key words to search for relevant documents. Unfortunately, a typical key word search will often generate a return set comprised of tens or hundreds of thousands of “hits,” i.e., links to web pages that include the key words. Although most search engines attempt to display the most relevant documents first, there is no guarantee that the algorithm used by the search engine will identify the most relevant results for the user.
One way to address the problem is to provide a mechanism that allows the user to further narrow the return set. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,090, Method and Apparatus for Searching a Database of Records, issued on Jul. 13, 1999 to Krellenstein, which is hereby incorporated by reference, search results are organized into a manageable set (e.g., 8-10) of hierarchical categories according to various metadata attributes. The user can then refine the search results by selecting a category. Unfortunately, in the above patent, the methodology for generating categories for the end user has certain limitations. In particular, the categories are selected using a weighted scoring algorithm that often causes a child (or grandchild) category to be displayed along side its parent category. For instance, a search for the term “disk drive” may turn up the parent category “Hardware” along with the child category “Personal Computers,” and grandchild category “PC Peripherals.” Such a result may not help the user narrow down the search results, as several categories may still have to be traversed by the user to find the best results.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system and method that can more effectively provide refinement categories in response to queries submitted to a search engine.